Archives For October 2012

What if your manager came to you and said that if you work hard for six months you will be promoted to a much higher position with much better pay.

But you would have to do the following:

work hard (could say work smarter, not harder)

work a few extra hours when needed,

find ways to solve problems without being asked to do so

try to make the company more efficient

have a great attitude

Your attitude would have to be that the company you work for is a very good one and that you have a great future there.

Your attitude would be that you make a big difference in the company and that you are responsible for turning around some of the problems and making things better whenever you can.

Actually, most managers would promote anyone who would do all these things, even if they didn’t sit down with the employee and tell them so. That is the kind of employee that gets ahead and the kind of employee that companies are looking to promote.

Not many people achieve great success in life (by whatever definition of success) but then, not many even try. So the number of people that achieve great success compared to the number of people that really try for great success is not that that small. In other words, not many people become famous actors, but then, not many people try to become famous actors.

Jenean Turner had up to 4 auditions per day for acting positions from the age of 15 until she was 27 years old. She was turned down over 1000 times before she got the big role in the TV show Northern Exposure. That is not to say she didn’t get any job offers, she did, but not the big stuff she was looking for.

Most people quit if they hear too many no’s. But what if you could predict the future and saw that you only had 20 no’s before you got a yes. You would just keep working, keep hearing the no’s because you knew without a doubt that you would finally get a yes. But the Law of Attraction, the law of faith says that whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Jesus said everything is possible for one who believes.

90% of first time businesses fail. 90% of second time business succeed, but 80% don’t try after they fail once. Isn’t that amazing, so many people don’t try a second time?

One of the bestselling writers of the past two decades was turned down 144 times by publishers until he was told yes. The Chicken Soup for the Soul books have sold over 100 million copies in 47 different languages because Jack Canfield and Victor Hanssen would not stop trying, no matter what.

How many people gave up trying to stop an addition, trying to start a business, save a marriage, keep kids on track, get a promotion–just before they would have succeeded?

The “weigh” he was Camp America commandant loses more than 50 pounds with help from friends Army Sgt. 1st Class Danny Carreras, Sgt. 1st Class Guillermo Santiago and Master Sgt. Orlando Negron of Headquarters and Headquarters Company of 525th Military Police Battalion, walk as part of a daily exercise routine to promote health and lose weight. – JTF Guantanamo photo by Army Spc. David McLean (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have lost five pounds already and since I have changed my eating habits I know I am losing more weight.

It may sound strange, but love can help you lose weight. If you love having a healthy, attractive body more than you love eating too much you will soon lose weight. If you love the feeling of being slim and not carrying around a heavy backpack of fat, you will soon lose weight.

A man lost a lot of weight by saying affirmations every day (I’m sure he ate less and exercised too). His affirmation was that he weighed 190 pounds even though he was closer to 290 pounds. Every day he said it over and over again: “I weigh 190 pounds, I feel better without the extra weight, and I look better.” As the months went by he lost weight until he did weigh 190 pounds.

I have started saying affirmations and it helps me lose weight. This is not a new idea. Thousands of years ago people were using affirmations. In the book of Joel in the Old Testament, chapter three it tells the weak to say they are strong.

Think about that! God actually tells weak people to say they are strong. It may seem like a lie at first, but it is not. God does strengthen us in every way that we need. We may not be strong the first few times we say it, but the more we say out loud that we are strong, or healthy, wealthy and wise or whatever, the more it will become true.

Losing weight is not that difficult if you can get motivated to eat less every day and exercise regularly. Of course it helps to find out how many calories each serving of food you eat has. Avoid high calorie-low nutrition foods like candy bars, cake and cookies. These add calories without giving your body the nutrition it needs, so you feel hungry.

Drink lots of water. Often I think I want to drink soda or eat food, but if I drink a glass of water, sometimes the craving goes away.

All bad feelings are the absence of love. When we think about things we don’t love, anything that makes us feel bad, sad, angry, jealous, etc. we feel less happy. When we think about things we do love such as our children, a beautiful sunny day, the leaves changing color in the fall, a nice easy chair, etc. we feel happy and it makes us stronger. To get unhappiness, discouragement and other negative emotions out of our mind, fill your mind with good. If you want to get the air out of a glass, don’t use a vacuum pump to try to pump the air out, that is a lot of work and your will never get all the air out. Instead pour something good into the glass, like water. Love flows to us from heaven like water and can fill us with happiness and strength. See John 7

Everyone who has learned the power of confidence will tell you that if you really change the way you think and obtain a completely optimistic outlook, it will give you power you never knew was possible. Does that seem hard to believe? Read about people who accomplished great things like Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Sam Walton (the founder of Walmart), W. Clement Stone (became fabulously wealthy by selling insurance) and many others, and you will see that they accomplished great things because they had something about them that seemed like powerful magic. They had confidence.

Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

W. Clement Stone went from extreme poverty as a child, to incredible wealth. He is famous for saying “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” He began selling insurance at a very young age and because of his incredible confidence, he quickly became rich. He decided he could make even more money by hiring people to help him sell insurance. As time went by, he found he could size a person up after talking to them for only a few minutes and determine if they would be successful at selling. He knew confidence was key.

Henry Ford accomplished things that most people said were impossible. Before the United States entered World War 2, the US government knew they must start preparing for war. They gave Henry Ford the task of designing a plant to build airplanes– heavy bombers. Many people looked around the world and said that at most we could build one bomber a day because each bomber was made of about one and a quarter million parts. Henry Ford designed a plant that could build one bomber every 55 minutes! Hitler didn’t think it was possible. This prodigious output of airplanes helped the allies win the war.

Sam Walton said “It is amazing what people can accomplish if they believe in themselves.”
William James, the Father of American Psychology said “The most important thing that determines success is whether or not you believe you can do it.”

Confidence, belief, power of positive thinking…. Jesus called it faith. He said if you have a little faith you can tell a mountain to move and it will.–Nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20 “Mountain” may have meant “problem,” just like we use it today in the phrase “don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Reblogged from from my earlier post.

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Decide what you want in life
(What would you do with your life if you knew you couldn’t fail )
Think about what you do well
Clarify your values
Set goals (don’t be afraid to set high goals)
Believe you can reach your goals
Find other people to work with
Be disciplined and persistent
Enjoy your work, work hard
Never, never give up
pray

A key or set of keys can be the key to success. Many people put their keys in their pocket or purse in the morning and take them out to start their car, unlock their house, possibly other things. Many people take them out of their pocket before bed.

When you touch your key, remember to be thankful for whatever that key unlocks. Take your apartment or house for example. Even if it is not exactly what you want, you can still be thankful for it. If you are reading this it means you have money for an internet connection, which means you are probably in the top half richest people in the world. If you make $50,000 US dollars a year or more, it means you are in the top 1% richest people in the world.

Touch your car key. Think about how grateful you are to have a car. If you have a car you are rich, only a small percentage of the people in the world own cars.

Every morning and every evening, be thankful for what you have. It is important to do it at those times because the thoughts you think before going to sleep help condition your subconscious thoughts and dreams as you sleep. What you think about in the morning helps you set a good mood that will make the whole day go better. I find that the proper thoughts in the morning really are a powerful way to change my day and my whole life.

It may seem surprising, but one of the most powerful things you can do to put yourself on a higher plane spiritually is to praise God. By doing this you are being grateful for God’s love for you. It makes you stronger and it makes your day more joyful, especially if you are doing it for God and not for you.

The color that describes China best might be red. The flag of China is red with five yellow stars. But in southern China where I lived for ten years green was also dominate. Trees, grass and foliage were green all year because it didn’t freeze there.

Imagine a country so different and so far away that it is completely unlike the world we live in here in America. China is a country of ancient customs, traditions and religions. It was much different in 1989 when I first arrived there than it is now.

Foreign countries have traded with China through the southern city of Canton (also called Guangzhou) for over 2000 years. Travel northwest up the Pearl River from Hong Kong about four hours by boat or two hours by train to reach it. Green rice paddies and brown muddy water of the flooded fields are everywhere.

Even after living there ten years, I found that it was more mysterious than the travel books describe. The sights, smells, sounds, and experiences are like nothing I ever imagined. The streets are jammed with people. It is amazing to walk down the street and see the sights: huge red Chinese characters written on walls; bright red, green, and yellow clothes; ancient architecture; shops that sell tea, Buddhist idols, kites, colorful pottery, tropical fruits of all kinds, many green leafy vegetables as well as melons of all kinds, or toys. Each shop sells something different. Once, while walking down the street, I smelled the pungent combination of teas from a tea shop. I went in and looked over the dozens of different kinds of teas and finally decided on a variety of green tea called “Special Gunpowder” which makes a brown tea which looks almost like muddy water.

Some of the most interesting places in Canton, a city of ten million people, are the back alleys. Grey apartment buildings, usually eight stories or taller, are built close together with only a narrow alley between them. The alleys are rather dark because the buildings shade them from the sun and are damp from the high humidity. Walking through them near mealtime, one can hear the hiss of garlic being thrown into hot peanut oil in a wok. The smell of peanut oil, fresh ginger root and sesame oil is often the dominant scents in these narrow passageways. One can hear conversations in many different dialects that form the sing-song languages of Chinese. During the hour-long break after lunch that everyone takes, you can often hear the click-clack of mahjong tiles being shuffled together. Mahjong is played with tiles similar to dominoes but the game resembles Gin Rummy.

Guangzhou is famous for food. Dim Sum is eaten in the morning. It is not one kind of food, but an assortment of many different low- priced delicacies such as wontons, hand-pulled noodles, tiny yellow egg custard pies, specially flavored meat balls, duck eggs salted in the shell, special cuts of sautéed meat, pastries, and many other foods. It is fun to sit in a teahouse in the morning and drink tea and eat Dim Sum. Waitresses push carts loaded with small bamboo baskets full of many kinds of delicious foods.

Looking out the window of a tea house, one can see the beautiful sub-tropical foliage such as the wide green leaves of banana plants and the even larger elephant ear plants which can be several feet wide. There are slender tan bamboo stalks taller than buildings, white orchids, palm trees, and a wide variety of plants sprinkled with bursts of red, pink, yellow flowers. Many of the parks have dozens of kinds of interesting trees, shrubs, plants and flowers. One of the beautiful things about Southern China is the abundance of bamboo. I have never seen more delicate leaves than the long, slender light-green bamboo leaves. Guangzhou was voted one of the top ten Garden Cities in the world. Because the temperature doesn’t go below freezing, they can grow many different kinds of plants and trees not found in other areas of the world.

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The Stone of Scone in the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey, 1855. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OK, readers from the UK may have heard all about this, many others probably have not, but there have been many books written about the subject and there are many websites about it. There is a theory that the stone Jacob (Stone of Scone) rested his head on and had visions of angels going up and down the ladder/stairway to heaven eventually was brought to Ireland/Scotland and the throne was built around it. What do you think? Leave a message. I have no idea if it is true or not, but it is fascinating.

A very short form of the story is that after Jacob freaked out about the stone and place, saying it was the gateway to heaven (Gen 28) he anointed the stone and made it an altar. He then brought it with him and it later got carried into Egypt. When Moses brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, he brought that same stone, the stone the builders rejected because it had a crack in it (that is why it was left on the ground for Jacob to find). When God told Moses to strike “the” stone, he was referring to that stone. Why would God say “the” stone if there was not some special stone? Water flowed out of the stone, a symbol of several things; Christians see the symbol of Jesus and the river of life flowing out of him, whereas Jewish traditions see other.

“”In both instances where the ‘Lord’ provided water from the rock, there is not the slightest indication that there was any selection, or indication of preference for any certain rock in the vicinity of Kadish, or that one was not already chosen, and in their midst. It is clear, also, that at the very first mention of water for the people from this “rock,” all that was necessary (as a preparatory measure) was for the ‘Lord’ to say to Moses, “speak to the rock.” Also, when the people were commanded to “gather before the rock,” they clearly understood which rock it was, so that in all the great company, no explanations were necessary. Therefore, it must have been among them before this event, and well known to them.” From United Hebrew Congregation website http://www.uhcg.org/Jacob-pillar/jac-OvrVw.html

There must have been something very significant about that rock, for God was so angry he punished Moses by not allowing him into the promised land. What an incredible punishment for such a small infraction—well not if it was in fact Jacobs Stone.

Between 745-721 B.C. we know the northern Ten-Tribed Kingdom of Israel (known as the House of Israel), together with a larger portion of the southern Kingdom of Judah (known as the House of Judah) were taken into Assyrian captivity (II Kings 17:3-6). Archaeological tablets found in the excavations of the Assyrian Royal Library at Nineveh have indicated that a majority of the Israelites escaped. Some traveled around the southern end of the Black Sea into the Danube River Valley and the Carpathian Mountains; others went by way of the Dariel Pass through the Caucasus Mountains, into the Steppes of Southern Russia. http://www.uhcg.org/Jacob-pillar/jac-OvrVw.html

God promised a descendant of King David would always be on the throne. During the many years the Jews were taken to Babylon, there was no throne or nation down south, but many believe some Jews went up north to what is now Ireland/Scotland. Most Kings of the UK were crowned on the throne that is built over the Stone of Scone, or Jacobs Stone. That would mean that Jewish leaders were on the throne continually from the days prior to Babylonian captivity until now. Hard to believe? Queen Victoria wrote in a letter that she was of Jewish decent. Like I say, I have no idea if it is true, but many leaders of the UK believed it was true.

Some say it was the tribe of Dan that escaped, and that is why so many places have the word “Dan” as part of the name, including the Danube River.

There are dozens of pieces of circumstantial evidence that show this theory could be true, much too much to list here. If you are interested, just type “Stone of Scone” or “Jacob’s Stone” into a search engine and volumes will come up for you to read.

Encyclopedia Britannica says that the stone under the throne was taken from an area in the UK, not from Israel, as reported by scientists who took a sample of it. So this could mean the whole theory is false, or it could mean that the real stone was stolen in years past and is hidden somewhere. It is apparently true that the stone under the throne was stolen back and forth between kings of the UK a number of times—apparently powerful people believed that it really was Jacob’s Stone, and may have believed it had magical qualities.

Leave a comment, have you heard of this? Do you think it could be true?

English: A replica of the Stone of Scone at Scone Palace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ian Lancaster Fleming(28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was an English author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer, best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. ~ Wikipedia

One of the reasons the James Bond series of books and movies are so fascinating is that Ian Fleming wrote about events that closely resembled what he had done in life. He was a spy commander in World War 2.

Fleming was not a good student and irritated the housemaster at Eton. He was known for womanizing and owned a car, which set him apart in those days, in a bad light in the eyes of the housemaster. He also contracted gonorrhea. His mother was Swiss and because of this Fleming had a good grasp of the German language, a trait that helped him rise in the ranks of the British Intelligence. After Eton, he studied briefly at Munich University and the University of Geneva. Just out of college he applied for the Foreign Office which was responsible for protecting and promoting UK interests worldwide but failed to get in. His family helped him get into banking but failed in two positions at two separate banks.

In May 1939 Fleming was recruited by Rear Admiral John Godfrey who was the Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy and became his personal assistant. His codename there was “17F.” It was said Fleming had ‘no obvious qualifications’ for the role” according to Andrew Lycett, a biographer. He started as Lieutenant but was promoted to commander a few months later. After a dismal start in school and banking, apparently Fleming found something he could do very well.

Almost all of the characters that recur in the Bond series are based after real people he met and often worked with. Bond was a mixture of his own life and perhaps two high ranking people he had met.

During his time with Naval Intelligence, he planned some very creative plots to obtain information from the enemy. He formed a group of commandos call the No. 30 Assault unit (30AU). The unit saw much success in Sicily and Italy and was greatly respected by the Royal Navy Intelligence. In June of 1944, Fleming was replaced as head of the force. Whether he was moved out of the position as a lateral move or because people were unhappy with his performance is debatable.

After the war his decided to write a spy novel and titled it Casino Royale. Fleming endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including the same golf handicap, his taste for scrambled eggs, his love of gambling, and use of the same brand of toiletries. ~Wikipedia

As is common for most successful writers the book was not well received, but since his brother Peter was a successful writer he persuaded the publishing company to print it. The series was a huge hit and has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children’s book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang which became a very popular movie.

The man who had spent many years failing at many things now became an incredible success as a writer. His Bond movies are probably watched and loved in almost every country of the world, and his books were loved by many, including an American President. But his books were too racy and violent for the time and he received a lot of negative criticism. Because of this and his marriage problems, some said that his writing ability declined.

Fleming said that he smoked too much, drank too much and loved too much. The last reference is probably in regards to his bouts with sexually transmitted diseases. Due to his lifestyle he died early, at the age of 53 from heart disease, on his son Caspar’s twelfth birthday. It is amazing to think about what he could have done if he hadn’t died so young. But to many people it is an inspiring story of a failure turned success.

Daniel Tammet is an Autistic Savant, an extraordinary person with an amazing mind. You may have seen this kind of person portrayed by the actor Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 film Rain Man.

Some people are synesthetes – one of their five senses is somehow linked to another sense in a way ordinary people don’t link them. For example, I read a WordPress blog by a man with synesthesia who can hear colors. When he sees the color blue, for example, he hears a certain tone. Seeing green causes a different tone in his mind. He is a visual artist and finds that combining colors that sound good together as chords usually make an aesthetically pleasing painting.

Daniel Tammet sees numbers. Each number has a color, texture and shape. Some numbers are tall and lanky, others are small and round. He sees all the prime numbers up to 9,973 by their “pebble-like” quality.

He wrote a book called Born On A Blue Day. He was born on Wednesday and those days look blue in his mind. To him the number 9 is blue, as well as loud voices arguing.

When he multiplies numbers he sees the two numbers as distinct shapes. He places the two numbers beside each other in his mind and a third number emerges. It is the product of the two numbers he multiplied. He can identify which number it is by its size, texture and shape. That makes it extremely easy for him to multiply numbers.

Daniel Tammet is from the United Kingdom. He says that about 1 in every 300 people in the UK have Asperger’s syndrome, which he also has. This is a condition some might call being socially retarded. They are almost always clumsy.

I dated a girl for a couple of years that was brilliant in school, she made a perfect 4.0 grade point average in her Master’s Degree in math, but was not intelligent socially. I had never heard of Asperger’s, but I guess she had it. It can be very distressing to care about a person who never seems to understand how to relate to other people. Asperger’s syndrome usually accompanies a lack of empathy for other people. I always felt she was cold to me and I could not understand that was just the way she was wired.

Isaac Newton, the most brilliant scientist who ever lived, almost certainly had Asperger’s. He never married, as is the case for 80% of the people with it. Many other top minds of the world probably had Asperger’s. To name a few: Napoleon, Einstein, Bill Gates, Alfred Hitchcock, Jane Austen, Hans Christian Andersen, Henry Cavendish, Satoshi Tajiri (creator of Pocket Monsters, better known as Pokémon), Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts cartoons), Wolfgang Mozart (I think he wrote songs or something, lol), Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Thomas Edison, Michael Jackson, Mark Twain, Henry Ford (awarded 161 US patents) and others.

According to Wikipedia “The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization, becoming standardized as a diagnosisin the early 1990s. “ People with Asperger’s tend to focus on just one thing in life. No wonder they are sometimes very successful.

Zig Ziglar speaks at the Get Motivated Seminar at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You have probably heard that when you exercise your body secretes endorphins into your bloodstream. These chemicals give you the “runner’s high.” They make you feel peaceful and happy.

Zig Ziglar writes that when you read motivational, inspirational material, glands in your body secret healthy chemicals that make you high. These chemicals help you become motivated, wide awake, peaceful and happy.

I stopped to think about this, could it really be true? I read that a couple of weeks ago and decided to see if it is true. Recently when I read or listen to motivational, inspirational books I stop and think, is this getting me high? Sure enough, it is! Amazing. So the moral of this story is that you can stay high on healthy chemicals while avoiding the illegal drugs that can blow your mind.

I have met a number of people who used so many illegal drugs that their minds became weak and numb. I recently read that smoking pot lowers the IQ. Some study in New Zealand researched this.

Well, if you want to stay stoned, read my blog, I think it will help. You might also try some of the books I list in the “Recommended Books” page of my blog. http://bradstanton.com/books-i-love/

I decided to do something lighthearted and silly during the last full moon. After reading the thought provoking book “Full Moon” by Seymore Butz who decides to grin and bare it, (that was after I read “Yellow River” by I.P. Freely) I decided to let my creative juices flow. This train wreck of a post is the unfortunate result.

The picture is Lady Gaga when she was nine. Isn’t she cute? More about her later in this post.

I suppose the inspiring, philosophical quote by Mic Jagger explains it pretty well: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need. Ahhhhh yea.” If we really take these words to heart it can make us a little more whatever. It’s just so….whatever. A quote from a rock guitarist in his usual drug induced stupor that I especially love: “Let him paltry when I don’t remember why I let’s go see and then it was over.” I’m sure he understood what he was talking about…or maybe not.

But it is true we don’t always get what we want. I attended a speech by a man who went to Canada to help people in a certain impoverished area with their spiritual, emotional and physical needs. I thought that was pretty cool. I wanted to go and do the same as I listened to his fascinating stories of making a difference in people’s lives. I knew that if I did that kind of work I would get that nice warm feeling every day. At my present job I only get that nice warm feeling from wetting my pants. But anyway, he told about how his wife found that many women in the rural area felt disconnected. So she started an outreach called Girlfriends Unlimited. He told some of the touching stories of how lonely women found a friend. I was so moved that during the question and answer session I told him I wanted to move to Canada and be a part of Girlfriends Unlimited. That door shut firmly in my face, I think it was sexual discrimination, but I didn’t let it get me down. I can’t always get what I want.

By now, if you are still reading this you probably think I suffer from insanity. No, that is not the case at all. I enjoy being insane.

I certainly didn’t get want I wanted at work the other day. My coworker was talking about his nephew who is making it fairly big in Hollywood and how he had dreamed of that since he was a child. Then he went on to tell about another relative who had dreamed of driving a truck since he was five. I told him I’ve always dreamed of being a Chippendale’s dancer. He ignored the comment. (I don’t really want to do be a Chippendale’s dancer, just wanted to shock him, I’d have to lose weight.) When people cling to a dream long enough, it almost always seems to be fulfilled. The picture of Lady Gaga – notice the flair for fashion, black outfit, wide eyes. She must have been perfecting her routine since childhood.

He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and what kind of woman I was looking for. He always thinks he needs to get me fixed up. I told him again that I want a woman the way I like my tea– strong, hot and sweet. He ignored that too. I don’t know why he doesn’t take me seriously. Once he even suggested I was demon possessed, but I’m sure the only reason he felt that way is that I forgot to pay my exorcist that month and got repossessed.

He sometimes told me wild, incredible, unbelievable stories, like the time at Christmas he was with all the family and in-laws sitting around the fireplace chatting. He said his father got up a laid a log on the fire. That was really hard for me to believe. For one, his dad is not the kind of person to lay a log in front of everyone, secondly, I’m sure he would burn his butt before he could finish laying the log. I just can’t picture his dad deciding to grin and bare it.

Then he had the gall to suggest maybe I have a drinking problem. I told him I don’t have a drinking problem at all, I can quit drinking any time I want. I quit drinking three times yesterday.

Why was Star Wars so wildly successful? Why did so many people love the movies and some watch them so many times that they memorized the lines? I think one of the reasons is that people were fascinated with the Force, the mysterious power that a person could tap into, enabling the person to do amazing things.

“These are not the driods you are looking for.” Remember that line? Obi-Wan Kenobi used mind control to make the guard believe that the droids with Obi were not the ones they were looking for. That is not just science fiction, some people really are that persuasive. Once when I lived in China I was sitting studying Chinese. My roommate was in the living room talking to his Chinese friend who had brought his friend who worked for the Chinese equivalent of the FBI/CIA. They had invited me to go with them to dinner, but I was much too busy so I declined. Later the spy guy came into my room and chatted for a moment using the little English he could speak. He invited me again but I declined. Then he looked intently at me and said something like “You really must come with us to dinner.” He was so persuasive it was almost like mind control. Suddenly I wanted to go and said I would. I was amazed at myself because I normally didn’t do that.

I enjoy going with master salespeople and watching them persuade people. Some people just seem to have an inner power that makes people want to go along with their ideas. W. Clement Stone was one of these kind of people. He became incredibly rich by selling insurance. He could visit a person who had said no to every sales person who called on him, but would somehow be convinced to say yes to Stone. One of the key characteristics of persuasive people is that they really believe they will make the sale.

During the past year I have been reading inspirational books by people who have achieved great success. All of the books seem to agree on one thing, that if a person wants to be successful, one must believe he can accomplish the desired goals. Once a person really believes that he/she can reach a lofty goal, a certain sort of magic starts to happen. Not only that, he begins to work hard at accomplishing the goal. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger really believed he could win body building championships and come to American to be an actor. He wanted it so badly that if he missed a workout he actually felt sick because he realized he had cheated himself of a day’s chance to get a little closer to the goal. He had faith and a strong desire. He believed in using the inner power of the mind.

So it takes faith—faith that you can reach the goal. Faith is the invisible quality that is needed before anything else will happen. When I was young I was told that talent is mostly just a strong desire to accomplish a goal.

Jesus and others said that if you have faith, you can do anything. Once a lady touched his robe and he felt healing power go out of him. He turned to her and told her that it was her faith that healed her. Matthew 9:22. He said everything is possible for one who believes. Mark 9:23

There really is a force that we can tap into flowing through the universe.

Mrs. Thompson had seen Teddy in the halls for several years before he became a fifth grader. She was not looking forward to having him in her class. She had a rather large class and dozens of papers to grade every day. The last thing she needed was another under achiever who needed extra help and rewarded her diligence with bad behavior. He didn’t try very hard and often showed up to class looking messy, hair uncombed and clothes not clean

But the school year began and she tried to make the best of it and give Teddy a fair chance before judging him too harshly.

Then came Christmas. All the students got Mrs. Thompson gifts wrapped in colorful wrapping paper with beautiful bows and ribbons. But when it came time for Teddy to give Mrs. Thompson her gift he carried forward a small package wrapped in paper from a brown paper grocery bag. She opened it and inside were a bracelet with some of the rhinestones missing and a bottle of cheap perfume than was more than half empty. Some of the children began to snicker and laugh. But she was smart enough to act delighted and put on some of the perfume.

Later Teddy came up and stood near her and said very quietly, Mrs. Thompson, you look just as beautiful as my mother when you wear that bracelet. And you smell just like her when you wear that perfume. He looked at her with admiration in his eyes.

She began thinking about Teddy after class that day. She realized that he had always been kind to her, even when some of the other students had not. She decided to look at his files and see what his previous teachers had written about him.

1st grade: Teddy shows promise but has very poor home situation

2nd grade: Teddy could do better but mother is seriously ill.

3rd grade: Teddy is a good boy but distracted, his mother died this year.

4th grade: Teddy shows no interest in school work and is not doing well. He has become very quiet and withdrawn, his father seems to show no interest in him.

Mrs. Thompson wiped away tears from her eyes. The next morning the students had a new teacher. She took off her eyes of judgment and put on eyes of love. She understood why Teddy was so distracted and apathetic.

Mrs. Thompson decided to make Teddy her special project. She gave him extra time and tutoring and found he was grateful for it, whereas when she had done this with other students they resented the extra work they were asked to do.

He finished elementary school and she didn’t see him again for a long time. But she got a letter from him telling her that he had graduated from high school second in his class. Later she got another letter saying that he had graduated from college first in his class. Then some years later she got another letter from Teddy saying he had graduated from medical school and was now a doctor. Not only that, he was getting married and wondered if she would be willing to sit where his mother would have sat in the wedding.

As she finished reading the letter she realized that the extra love and attention she had showed Teddy steered him away from a life of failure. She had quit judging him and realized that he had potential, but no one else was willing to help him.
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Like this:

“A failure establishes only this: that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.”
– Bovee
“Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure.”
– Donald Trump
“More men fail though lack of purpose than lack of talent.” – Bill Sunday

Thomas Edison probably failed more times than any other scientist/inventor of the last two centuries. However, he also succeeded more times than any other inventors. He received patents for well over a thousand useful inventions.

Babe Ruth struck out more times in a year than any other person in his baseball league. However, he also hit more home runs than anyone else.

This means that we don’t need to fear failure. In fact, if we learn from our failures, they can be very good things. Edison tried over 10,000 ways to design a long lasting light bulb. When asked if all those failures discouraged him he said “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

“How many people are completely successful in every department of life? Not one. The most successful people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and turn their failures into opportunities.” – Zig Ziglar

Sometimes failure makes us stronger. Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity basketball team when he was a freshman, and the agony he experienced from that pushed him to work much harder than he already was. The player that beat him for the top spot must have been outstanding. If that player was not very good, Jordan would have made the team without learning to put extra effort into his goals and dreams. He might not have been such an outstanding player in college.

Abraham Lincoln failed many times, he went bankrupt, failed in political races many different times and married a woman who was apparently mentally ill. She was known for throwing coffee in his face in public, going on bizarre spending sprees and being especially difficult to get along with. But during one of the worst times in his marriage he wrote the Gettysburg Address which stands even today as a masterpiece. His years of being president of the US were extremely difficult, a man not as accustomed to trouble might have buckled under the pressure and let the US split into two countries.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. ~Les Brown
Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. ~Doug Larson

I once read that the 4% who graduated from Yale University with definite goals were investigated 20 years later. They had accomplished more than the 96% who didn’t have goals.

Brian Tracy, the inspirational writer who started as a dishwasher and became a multimillionaire said that after twenty years of coaching and observing people, he feels success is all about goals.

You have probably heard about SMART goals:
S specific: A goal must be written down in the positive form such as “I will weigh 230 pounds by May December 20, 2012 in a specific manner. The subconscious mind needs a specific, positive goal in order to process all the ideas and motivation to achieve the goal. Keep the goals where you can review them daily, especially just before bed at night.

M measurable: A goal must have some way to measure the outcome. For example, I can’t just say I want to lose a lot of weight, because there is no way to know when I have achieved that goal.

A Attainable: the goals must be high enough to cause you to really want the outcome and spend energy working for it. A series of small goals can be used to achieve a larger goal such as “I will go from 250 pounds to 245 pounds by October 31, 2012.” Losing five pounds is reasonable and attainable.

R Realistic: If my goal is to write a book in addition to my full time job and play golf every day, that is not a realistic goal. High goals are actually sometimes more realistic than low goals because they can be more exciting and life changing.

T Timely: there must be a definite date when the goal is to be accomplished. This is extremely difficult to do. I often don’t reach my goals on time. That is OK, if I get discouraged I just read or listen to motivational/inspirational material and the excitement of reaching for a goal comes back to me to replace the discouragement.

Brian Tracy said: “Writing the goal down makes you believe that you can achieve your goals. The more often you write them, the more you will believe you can achieve. If your reasons are big enough, belief solid enough and desire intense enough nothing can stop you.”

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’…”
(Revelation 21:5, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

Can you remember the time when you first discovered a big dream in your heart? Maybe you were determined to excel in your career, or as a parent, or maybe you were focused on deepening your walk with the Lord. You probably started out with enthusiasm, but maybe things got a little difficult or didn’t happen as quickly as you would have liked. Oftentimes, when things don’t go as planned, people decide, “I’m just going to settle here. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but at least it’s good enough.”

Friend, in this new season, recognize that you were made for more than “good enough.” You were made to increase, to excel, to grow and stretch. Why don’t you take a step of faith this year and embrace the new life He came to give you. Not only does Christ offer new life in eternity, but He offers new life here on earth. Why don’t you pick up those dreams and be determined to see them through. It’s a new day, and He is making everything new in your life!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father in heaven, thank You for this new day. Thank You for the opportunity to begin again. I choose to press forward and keep believing for the dreams and desires You’ve placed in my heart. I trust You today with everything that I am in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Napoleon Hill studied 500 extremely successful people to find out what brought about success or failure. He wrote books about this subject and they were bestsellers, many still are sold today after more than 70 years. He studied Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, a US president, and many others. Here is what he found:

30 greatest causes of failure

Unfavorable hereditary background, weak intelligence (get wise advice from others to overcome this) Many super successful people are not intellegent

Lack of well-defined purpose in life

Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity

Insufficient education (Thomas Edison and many others had very little education)

Lack of self-discipline

Ill health

Unfavorable environmental influences in childhood

Procrastination

Lack of persistence

Negative personality

Lack of controlled sex urge

Uncontrolled desire for something for nothing (ex. Gambling)

Lack of well-defined power of decision (changing mind too often)

One or more of the six basic fears (fear of failure, ill health, loss of love, poverty, death, old age, criticism)

Wrong selection of mate in marriage-marriage problems cause problems

Over-caution

Wrong selection of associates in business

Superstition and prejudice

Wrong selection of a vocation (you won’t succeed if you don’t like your job)

Lack of concentration of effort, be a jack of all trades-master of none

Spend thrift, must save some money each paycheck

Lack of enthusiasm

Intolerance, stop acquiring knowledge

Intemperance in eating, strong drink, sex

Inability to cooperate with others (major cause)

Passion or power not acquired thru self-effort

Intentionally dishonest

Egotism and vanity

Guessing instead of thinking, acquire facts not opinions

Lack of money (usually not a problem, find investors)

Have someone go over this with you after you do it yourself once

Have I attained the goals for the year?

Have I delivered service ?

What quantity of service did I deliver?

Was my spirit of conduct harmonious?

Did I procrastinate?

Did I Improve my personality?

Was I persistent in following my plan?

Did I reach decisions quickly?

Have I let any of 6 major fears (fear of poverty, old age, criticism, loss of love of someone, ill health, death) decrease my efficiency?

Sophia Loren went from rags to riches. She grew up very poor and fatherless in Italy and was wounded by shrapnel in World War 2. A film producer, Carlo Ponti, discovered her when she was 15 (later married her) and helped her rise to stardom. She is considered the number one female actress from Italy. One thing that some notice about her is her gratitude. She never forgot what Ponti did for her and was grateful to him her entire life. She stayed married to him until he died on 10 January 2007 of pulmonary complications. When asked if she would ever marry again she said she would not because it would be impossible to love anyone else. She did a lot of charity work and is a devout Christian.

You have probably noticed that grateful people are usually happy and easy to get along with and ungrateful people are usually unhappy and are often hard to deal with. People who are grateful to their loved ones always have happier relationships. Too often it is easy to keep a list of the bad things other people do instead of the good. Keeping a “bad list” ends up hurting the list keeper even more than the others.

When I wake up in a bad mood I find the best way to change to a happy mood is gratitude. I, like anyone else, can easily think of more than a dozen things to be thankful for as I walk to the bathroom to get ready for the new day. The more I think of things to add to my list of blessings, the easier it is to make the list.

I think it is great that Sophia Loren is known for her gratitude. Not many rich and famous Hollywood stars stay married, but she did. Maybe her humble beginnings help her maintain humility in spite of the fact that she is world famous.

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